Land is getting cheaper and more expensive

Land is getting cheaper and more expensive

New data on land should be celebrated like sightings of a rare tropical bird.

Luckily, the intrepid housing data ornithologists, Savills, have got their binoculars out with a new report today on land values.

The report explains how land values are following house prices by rising outside of London in places like the Midlands, and falling in central London.

The report also explains how greenfield land is now increasing in value more quickly than urban development land, quarter on quarter.

Part of the fuel for this is the new £10bn set aside for Help to Buy, which should “translate into increased confidence in buying land”.

Interestingly, it points out that the Affordable Housing and Viability Supplementary Planning Guidance in London “does not appear to be affecting land values for consented sites in the capital.”

It will be important to see whether, by incentivising developers away from using viability, this new guidance will lead to a reduction in wild speculations on land, and therefore a cooling in land values in the capital.